What is the Dewdrop Method? And how does it work?

One of the reasons Common App's personal statement is so tricky is that it's basically just a blank space. Yes, there are seven prompts but the seventh one is just "write about whatever you want to write about." As with any form of freedom, this is both liberating and a little bit paralyzing.

Over the past seven years, I've worked with students who mostly feel paralyzed/confused by the personal statement and I've developed something I call the Dewdrop Method, which helps students write about themselves in both a broad yet focused way.

Here's how the Dewdrop Method works. I ask students a series of brainstorming questions to help them generate some possible Dewdrops — people, places, objects, words, memories, sounds, smells, etc.

A Dewdrop should be something specific and concrete. Some of my favorite dewdrops from recent years include:

• being able to peel potatoes in 30 seconds or less

• building dirt jumps in a secret spot in the woods

• fixing a broken water heater

• why "damn" is the best curse word

• an obsession with the composer Rachmaninoff

A Dewdrop doesn't need to be "substantial" (in fact, it's better if it's not) and you don't need to know it's deeper meaning.

The student who wrote about fixing the water heater did not think this story was particularly meaningful or deep. She actually thought I was a little crazy for encouraging her to write about it. But the reason I asked her to do so was simple. She was excited about it! During one of our meetings, she clearly enjoyed telling me the story of how she'd done a deep dive on water heaters and even impressed the plumber with her knowledge when he showed up to fix it.

This excitement is the most important factor when choosing a Dewdrop. Excitement indicates that there is energy around the Dewdrop — rarely does the student know why, but there's an energy nonetheless and this energy becomes crucial in the next step: free writing.

Free writing is a very broad term but I define it simply as writing without editing. As in, you are putting words on paper and you aren't worrying whether those words are the right ones, whether they're in the correct order, or if you sound smart or interesting or appropriate. The words just go on the paper because you know they'll be fixed later.

When drafting a Dewdrop, I prefer to do what I call a conversational free write. This means that I ask the student a question and then I have them type their response on the doc. It's as if they are answering my question verbally but they're typing it instead of speaking it.

The conversational free write usually begins very concretely. I ask them to describe the Dewdrop. Then I look at what they've written and I start asking "Why" questions. Why do you think fixing the water heater was so memorable for you? Why is "damn" the best curse word?

The student will answer and then I'll keep asking questions, and the more questions I ask, the more the student has to think, "Why does this really matter to me?" It's not like they know the answer. The process of writing about it is like inner detective work. I love the word "insight" because it's exactly what it sounds like: it's in sight, sight inside yourself. These insights often aren't thing we carry around consciously. They have to be unearthed through the process of inquiry.

That's what makes this process so fascinating. Every time I do it, the student is just as surprised as me to learn what comes up. I want you to keep this in mind as you read the essay example I'm going to share. Below is the essay my student wrote about the water heater, a personal statement with which she applied to NYU (her top choice) and was accepted. Read through it and then we'll discuss.

This summer, our water heater broke. The pipe started leaking water all over the floor. And as much as I wanted to ignore the problem in hopes that it might fix itself, miracles don’t happen. I had to take responsibility. Because if not me, who is going to do it? And I mean that literally. My parents don’t speak English, so these kinds of things fall on my shoulders. 

So, I spent hours online reading about water heaters, learning about their average life expectancy, the pros and cons of gas or electric, and how everything water-related in my house, from the shower temperature to the pressure in the sink, all rely on this little tank. By the end of the process, I had a lot of respect, and even fascination for this thing that had been so important in my life all along. I even enjoyed talking to the repair man when he came, and he was impressed that I knew so much about water heaters. 

I tell you all of this not because I now have a lifelong passion for water heaters but because this story reflects a larger, more important theme: throughout my life, I have had to be the person who deals with the metaphorical water heater. 

Since the age of 9, when our family moved to Prague, Czech Republic, I could no longer ignore the “adult” problems. It started with attending parent-teacher conferences and interpreting for my parents at banks, airports, or any event that wasn’t in Russian. 

At first, I was upset that our family had moved away from everyone and everything that worked so well—these problems simply didn’t exist until we moved from Russia. Until I finally understood why. Every weekend, when I walked with my mom in Prague, we saw protestors in Old Town Square with signs like “Russia—Hands off Ukraine!” My mom explained that this was why we had moved: the Russian government’s growing authoritarianism. 

But every time I’d go back to visit Moscow or talked to my friends there, it seemed like nothing was happening. Like everything was normal. As I got older, I began watching the news and learning about my country’s politics. Luckily, living in the Czech Republic, I had access to independent media, unlike my friends back in Russia who were influenced by propaganda. 

When the invasion of Ukraine took place in 2022, the majority of Russia closed their eyes. I would open Instagram and see photos of people at concerts in Moscow, dancing. And then I would open the news and see images of a children’s hospital in rubble. It was shocking that people would live in this bubble without anyone noticing what’s going on next door. 

All of this made me grateful that my parents had taken a stand back when I was 9 years old. And as I got older, it only became more important for me to look at what was happening around me with an unflinching eye. If I were to choose which of my values is most important to me, this would be it: to look deeper into the things that people want to ignore, even when it’s difficult to accept. 

This includes not just Russian politics but the climate crisis. When I first saw videos of turtles mistaking plastic bottles for jellyfish, I was traumatized. But that traumatization led to years of passion and change-making. 

In general, this drive of curiosity hasn’t stopped. Every day, I check the Citizen app to monitor crime in my city and keep tabs open on the local and international news. If I hear a plane fly over my house, I always open the Flight Radar app and check where it’s going. 

So, even though it’s been challenging to grow up quickly, it's made me a more curious person. A person who wants to investigate all that is going on around me, including our water heater.

The End.

So, this essay started with a story about a water heater but it ended up weaving through some pretty big topics and ideas — Russian politics, climate change, family responsibility, curiosity...

But the point is that's not where the student started. They started with a Dewdrop, but simply following the excitement of the Dewdrop led to some of this student's core values. The Dewdrop was just a way to get access to those core values. Some might ask why the Dewdrop part is necessary — why not just start with the core values? There are some teachers who do. The College Essay guy recommends a value exercise where students comb through a list of values and then work from there to find an object that reflects the value they've chosen. This is a valid approach and clearly works for many students.

But I also don't believe that people walk around with a lot of conscious knowledge about their values. I also think values tend to be a bit stiff and inhuman. Someone might say they value curiosity but what does that really mean? And there is plenty of discrepancy too around what we want to value vs. what we actually value.

The Dewdrop Method doesn't ask you to know what your values are from the start. It just asks you to find a charge or spark of excitement around something small and concrete.

And because a Dewdrop is small and concrete, it connects to a mine of more abstract associations somewhere deep inside you. Through free writing, we unspool the Dewdrop (mixing metaphors, I know) and those Big and Important associations.

This is basically a principle of mnemonics — when you want to memorize chunks of abstract information, you connect that information to something more tangible like memorizing the quadratic equation through a song, or using your knuckles to remember how many days are in each month, or using a memory palace to recall a speech, as the Roman rhetoricians did.

And the fact that a Dewdrop is something the student has remembered is also important for the admissions process. Because when admissions officers recall which essays stuck with them the most, they always remember the Dewdrops (even if they don't call them that).